Gnocchi with Asparagus, Sage & Prosciutto
Prep Time:10 mins, Cook Time: 6 mins, Total Time: 16 mins!
April 27, 2014
Whoopity, whoop whoop, the UK Asparagus Season has finally started, officially last Wednesday actually! There’s something very special about the excited annual anticipation of it’s arrival in the shops but sadly the same can’t be said for most of our fruits and veggies that are all too easily available all year round. But asparagus is one of the few last survivors of seasonality, and for that reason I can never EVER bring myself to buy it imported and out of season.
Just in case you didn’t catch it I’m hosting an asparagus recipe competition on my blog, the favourite few of which get to feature in the Asparafest programme and the winner will receive family weekend tickets to the festival, a family-friendly asparagus, food and music festival on 31st May and 1st June in Evesham, Worcestershire, the heart of the UK asparagus growing country. And it looks like it’s going to be one action packed and fun weekend, so do join in. Tickets by the way are transferable to another family if you cannot attend yourself.
So on to my asparagus recipe, Gnocchi with Asparagus, Sage & Prosciutto in a rich Lemon dressing. It’s ridiculously simple to prepare, quick to cook, family-friendly (a great way to entice the littlies to eat asparagus in fact) and dare I say so myself lip-smackingly delish. The heady pairing of lemon and sage work really very well with the slight salty tang from the slithers of prosciutto. Just leave out the prosciutto for a veggie version which would be equally as nice. Obviously you could make your own gnocchi, which is something I plan on doing soon myself for the first time (it’s apparently very easy), but as ever time was a little stretched and for me gnocchi is a quickie dinner.
I’m entering my asparagus recipe to a few events and challenges:
1) To my Asparagus recipe competition of course! The winner of which will receive weekend family tickets to Asparafest at the end of May and lots of lovely asparagus.
2) To the Four Seasons Food challenge that I co-host with Anneli at Delicieux. Anneli’s hosting this month’s ‘Celebration of Vegetables‘ event.
3) To Pasta Please, a monthly pasta event by Jac at Tinned Tomatoes, this month hosted by Manjiri at A Slice Off Me with a theme of Olive Oil. Funnily enough I was delighted to meet up again yesterday with both lovely ladies at a Foodies 100 blogging event in Birmingham, yay!
4) To Ren Behan‘s Simple and in Season as asparagus is very much now in season, another big yay! This month Michelle at Utterly Scrummy‘s hosting.
Asparagus!
Great For:
Bigger Kids, Grown Ups, Mid-Week Dinners, Quick Meals, Lunch, Asparagus Fanatics
Notes:
For a veggie version leave out the proscuitto
Special Equipment:
Nil
Gnocchi with Asparagus, Sage & Prosciutto
Ingredients Prep Time:10 mins, Cook Time: 6 mins, Total Time: 16 mins!
200g asparagus tips, washed
500g pack gnocchi
1 tablespoon olive oil
20g butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely sliced
1 lemon, zest and juice
50g proscuitto, sliced into small strips, optional
black pepper
grated Parmesan, to serve, optional
1) Slice the asparagus stems into three leaving the tips whole.
2) Cook the gnocchi and asparagus together in a large saucepan of boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes until the gnocchi rises to the surface of the pan. The asparagus should be just tender by now. Drain and set aside.
3) Whilst the gnocchi and asparagus are cooking heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan and sauté the finely sliced shallots and garlic for a couple of minutes before adding the sage for a further minute. Stir through the lemon zest and juice.
4) Tip the gnocchi and asparagus into the frying pan with the proscuitto strips and a generous pinch of black pepper. Sauté everything together for a further couple of minutes.
5) Serve with freshly grated Parmesan if you wish.
Yum! Sound delicious. You can tell you’re back in the UK by the colour of your asparagus! I love green asparagus…
Ahr, true indeed. I always had a bit of a problem with white asparagus, just didn’t really get all the hype!
This looks delicious, I love asparagus and hope to grow some on the allotment next year.
Ha, I was about to be all complimentary, till I found you used a packet of gnocchi…I haven’t ever successfully made my own but I’m fascinated by the idea. As for asparagus, British is best – and green is special!
One day I will make gnocchi myself but for now I am happy to just buy them. I love this combo Louisa.
I love gnocchi 😉 We have slightly different version of them in Poland called “kopytka” 😀
I love local asparagus, we’re lucky enough to have an asparagus farm just down the road. I stalk the farm shop at this time of year. GG
Thanks for linking up this gorgeous recipe with the #Pastalease challenge Louisa. I hope you win the tickets! and it was lovely meeting you ,Jaq and the everyone else from our FBC gang at Birmingham! Cheers!
That looks soooooo good 🙂 This is such a beautiful Spring dish Lou – topped with all that lovely asparagus, I bet the textures together are just lovely. Thanks for entering this into Four Seasons Food. xx